Chicago City Hall

There has been a dispute between an alderman and the mayor over whether the alderman was informed about the handling of plans for a development — and this sounds like the sort of bureaucratic wrangling most Annapolitans would be happy to leave in the undergrowth of city government. But this was still a troubling indication that things aren't running smoothly at City Hall, and that keeping aldermen informed has slipped too far down the to-do list. That's because the argument between Mayor Mike Pantelides and Alderman Jared Littmann, who heads the City Council's Environmental Matters Committee, is about none other than the city's handling of the forest...

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel is planning to borrow another $500 million, some of which will be used to push more debt off into the future at a higher cost to taxpayers.
The Emanuel administration declined Thursday to provide a detailed breakdown of how the...

The Chicago City Council will meet for the final time this summer as aldermen try to take care of business before the 2016 budget process starts to dominate the proceedings this fall.
Here's some of what's on tap Wednesday at City Hall:
• Mayor Rahm...

His name, along with his son's, is posted above the front door of his North Lawndale two-flat: C. AND T. ROSS.
Clyde Ross owns this building, an elegant graystone decorated with swags of sculpted ribbons worthy of a wedding cake.
The emphatic capital...

More bad news for Chicago (and Illinois) taxpayers arrived Friday morning in a 35-page, double-sided packet. On one of the last pages: "The entire Act is void."
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak tossed out Chicago's pension reform law....

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has named a lobbyist and former top aide to House Speaker Michael Madigan to be the next chief of staff at City Hall.Eileen Mitchell will assume the key post in the Emanuel administration next month. The lobbyist for AT&T will...

A Northwest Side alderman long at odds with Mayor Rahm Emanuel put a temporary halt Monday to a street closure as the city prepares to install a digital billboard that would tower over the Kennedy Expressway.
Giving aldermen advance notice of major...

When Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced two years ago he would use tax increment financing money to buy land for a basketball arena, he poked the beast.
The TIF program had been widely criticized as a slush fund for Mayor Richard M. Daley. In a 2010 editorial,...

Chicago Public Schools, a generation ago condemned as the worst in the nation, was hailed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week as "leading the country in urban school systems on graduation and growth."
Such sweeping comparisons are inherently hard...

Frank Clark's reputation as a savvy business leader with political smarts will be tested as president of the Chicago Board of Education.
Clark, the former chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Edison, will oversee a school system reeling from a massive budget...

How many times do members of the Cook County Board have to learn their power to cause economic havoc?
•After the board passed then-President Todd Stroger's 1-percentage-point sales tax hike in 2008, revenues plummeted by 40 percent at the Toms-Price...

Twenty years ago this week, Chicago was gripped by one of the city's worst natural disasters: a scorching heat wave that claimed more than 700 victims, mostly the poor, elderly and others on society's margins.
The temperature hit 106 degrees on July...

Water Reclamation District president to talk stormwater management
Park Ridge 2nd Ward Ald. Nicholas Milissis has organized a community meeting for residents interested in learning more about the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
Milissis...

Chicago Public Schools officials unveiled budget details Monday that show how the district can open schools in the fall. What those officials didn't say — what they don't yet know — is how they can keep them open through next spring.
The district told...

The property tax bill that just arrived in the mail from Cook County's treasurer compels you to make good on years of politicians' ruinous decisions about public finances: By month's end you'll pay a lot of money to local governments that let their...

The idea to marry DePaul University's basketball program with an expansion of the McCormick Place Convention Center came to outgoing Chicago Planning and Development Commissioner Andrew Mooney in the shower.
It took two phone calls and one meeting for...

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner tried to isolate House Speaker Michael Madigan on Wednesday, suggesting the veteran legislative leader was "in charge" and should wrangle Democrats into passing a $4 billion tax hike on their own or strike a deal...

Three months after winning re-election, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is still reeling in campaign cash, collecting another $612,000 in contributions from familiar donors.
Emanuel aides did not make a campaign representative available for comment Tuesday, so it was...

I am a principal in Chicago Public Schools. A reporter called me recently and asked what the impact of CPS' proposed 1,400 job cuts would be on my school, Blaine Elementary. I could not answer without seeing a specific budget, but the cuts will chip...

Chicago officials have issued more than $1.2 million in penalty payment checks to hundreds of paramedics who a federal court judge determined had been shortchanged on overtime pay.
In addition to the penalty payment checks, the city also issued checks...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a difficult path in his effort to forge a "grand bargain" to steady Chicago Public Schools finances.
He needs broad buy-in from state legislators and the Chicago Teachers Union to reshape the law and win contract...